Schools are teaching on the cheap by using unqualified staff, a teachers’ union claims.

Teaching assistants and support staff are being drafted in to take classes, according to the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL).

It says many are asked to provide cover for teachers, with some taking lessons for three days or more.

'On the cheap': Almost a quarter of assistants said they had been asked to cover lessons

It questioned 1,435 of its school support members in state-funded schools in England, Wales, Northern Ireland and the Isle of Man.

They are often hired to oversee classes while teachers are doing work such as lesson planning.

Some 25.4 per cent of the teaching assistants and learning support workers questioned, 49.1 per cent of higher level teaching assistants and 96.1 per cent of cover supervisors said they were asked to cover lessons.

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Of all of those surveyed,
two-fifths said they had been asked to provide more or the same amount
of cover for absent teachers in 2012/13 than the year before.

The rest said they had been asked to provide less, or the question was not relevant.

Of more than 400 who said that
they stand in for teachers when they are off more than two-thirds said
they are asked to cover short-term absences of less than three days.

But
2.9% of teaching assistants, 1% of cover supervisors and 8.1% of higher
level teaching assistants claimed they are asked to cover for longer
absences.

One higher level teaching assistant
said: ‘I prepare, teach and mark at least four lessons for two Year 7
bottom-set classes, and a Year 8 set for at least three hours a week. It
is teaching on the cheap.’

Anger:
ATL general secretary Dr Mary Bousted said that schools are selling children short

And a teaching assistant at an English primary school said: 'It is unfair that many TAs are teaching classes in the absence of a teacher, and doing the same job as a teacher for much less money.'

ATL general secretary Dr Mary Bousted said: 'Schools are selling children short by using teaching assistants to teach classes when the regular teacher is unavailable.

'We are totally opposed to this exploitation of support staff who are being used as a cheap option to teachers.

'It is grossly unfair on them and on the children and their parents who rightly expect their children to be taught by qualified teachers.'

A Department for Education spokeswoman said: 'The Government's recent review of school efficiency showed that, when properly trained and deployed, teaching assistants play an important role in helping to improve learning.

'But the rules are clear - they should not be teaching. It is for school leaders to use the expertise of all staff to ensure any disruption to pupils is minimal and that taxpayers get value for money.'